Health

What You Ought to Know About Piriformis Syndrome

Do you have pain or discomfort in your buttocks? You might be suffering a condition known as piriformis syndrome. This disorder affects the piriformis muscle in the buttocks causing the muscle to spasm or cause persistent pain. Fortunately, this condition can be managed through several treatment options to ensure that it doesn’t disrupt your quality of life. Newtown piriformis syndrome specialists at Performance Pain and Sports Medicine offer comprehensive care for this condition to help you get back your quality of life.

Understanding Piriformis Syndrome

As noted, this condition affects your buttock’s muscles causing discomfort and spasm. You can experience frequent cramps in your buttocks, or sometimes it can radiate to persistent pain. Moreover, the spasm can irritate your sciatic nerve leading to sciatica. In this case, you can experience tingling, numbness, and pain affecting your hips, feet, and legs.

Causes of Piriformis Syndrome

While the specific causes of this condition remain a mystery, several factors can contribute to the muscle spasm you experience in your buttock. They include inflammation, injuries, or bleeding around the piriform muscle area.

Symptoms of Piriformis Syndrome

If you experience persistent tenderness in your buttocks, it can be an early sign of piriformis syndrome. If you experience spasms that irritate your sciatic nerve, you can also experience sciatica symptoms. Some common symptoms of piriformis syndrome include:

  •       Increased pain if you sit for a long time
  •       Reduced range of motion in your hip
  •       Pain in the back of your calf and thigh
  •       Back and leg pain that accelerates when climbing stairs.

Management of Piriformis Syndrome

Lying flat on your back can give you some pain relief. However, if the pain persists and worsens over physical activity, it is time to seek expert care for your condition. The Performance Pain and Sports Medicine team of experts can evaluate your condition and recommend the best treatment procedure suitable for you.

Through diagnosis, the team evaluates your symptoms and reviews your medical history as they try to get to the root of your condition. Your provider can examine your lower back and buttocks muscles physically to check for symptoms such as tenderness and swelling.

Treatment Options for Piriformis Syndrome

Once your provider confirms your condition and gets to its root cause, a treatment plan is designed to relieve the symptoms and manage the condition. The plan can include:

Radiofrequency Ablation

If you are experiencing chronic pain due to piriformis syndrome, your provider can recommend this procedure to intercept pain signals from reaching your brain. It involves using a thin needle to deliver high-frequency energy to destroy part of the nerve tissue in the surrounding nerves.

Chiropractic Treatment and Acupuncture

These treatment options are recommendable where you have symptoms from both piriformis syndrome and sciatica. The options can relax your muscles and improve blood circulation. Chiropractic care focuses not only on treating the symptoms but also on helping you avoid the condition in the future if the cause is identified.

Muscle Relaxers

This is where muscle relaxers are prescribed to loosen your piriformis muscle, legs, and lower back muscles.

Anti-inflammatory Injections

This treatment option comes in if you can’t perform physical activities to stretch your muscles, probably due to the pain. It involves an injection of local anesthesia or an anti-inflammatory.

If you are experiencing frequent cramps in your buttocks, it would be better to seek medical attention to optimize your function. Even if you are experiencing other sciatica symptoms, the performance Pain and Sports Medicine team can diagnose your ailment and suggest an effective treatment option.

Show More

Related Articles

Back to top button